The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to an adjustable frequency band optical detector and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a system for high resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,391,520 discloses, “An alternative Fourier domain optical coherence system (FD-OCT) and its associated method. The system comprises a swept multi-wavelength laser, an optical interferometer and a multi-channel receiver. By employing a multi-wavelength laser, the sweeping range for each lasing wavelength is substantially reduced as compared to a pure swept single wavelength laser that needs to cover the same overall spectral range. The overall spectral interferogram is divided over the individual channels of the multi-channel receiver and can be re-constructed through processing of the data from each channel detector. In addition to a substantial increase in the speed of each axial scan, the cost of invented FD-OCT system can also be substantially less than that of a pure swept source OCT or a pure spectral domain OCT system.”
Chinese Utility Model No. 201542612 discloses, “A spectral domain OCT strobe light and sound spectra rapid detection system, including broadband light source (8), the optical isolator (10), a broadband fiber coupler (11), four polarization controller (9), the sample arm (20), the reference arm (21) and the probe arm (22); from the broadband light source (8) out of the low-coherence light passes through the first polarization controller (9), an optical isolator (10) is incident to a broadband fiber optic coupler (11), after splitting the way through the second polarization controller (9) into the sample arm (20), another pass third polarization controller (9) into the reference arm (21), the return of the light in the broadband fiber coupler After (11) in the interferometer, through the fourth polarization controller (9), into the detection arm (22); characterized in that said detection arm (22): includes a fiber collimator (1), the grating (2), the focus lens (3), radio frequency drives (4), acousto-optic modulator (5), a focusing lens (6) and the detector unit (7); into the detection arm (22) of the light from the fiber collimator (1) collimator After parallel rasterized (2) spectroscopic grating (2) and acousto-optic modulator (5) are located at a focusing lens (3) in the front focal plane and the focal plane, the light through the grating (2) after the focusing lens by spectroscopic (3) after each color light is focused on acoustic-optical modulator (5), parallel to the colored light focusing lens (3) is obliquely incident on the main optical axis acoustic-optical modulator (5), the RF drive (4) of the RF pulse signal acousto-optic modulator driver (5), the light through the narrow spectrum signal RF pulse signal drives acousto-optic modulator (5) diffraction gating time series, the focusing lens (6) Focus detection in cell detector (7), acoustic-optical modulator (5) and the detector unit (7) are placed in the focusing lens (6) and the front focal plane of the rear focal plane.”
U.S. Patent Publication no. 2015/0173619 to the present inventor discloses, “Systems and methods for scanning an organ or other extended volumes of body tissue using one or more Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) probes . . . . Some embodiments provide equipment for managing a plurality of OCT penetrations into a tissue or organ, and provide some or all of the following: detection and/or control of OCT probe positions and orientations (and optionally, that of other imaging modalities) detecting changes in body tissue positions, registering and mapping OCT scan results and optionally input from other imaging modalities, integrating OCT scan information and/or information from other modalities and/or recorded historical information, optionally some or all of the above with reference to a common coordinate system. Some embodiments comprise a display for displaying some or all of this information. In some embodiments, inferences based on observed portions of the organ relative to non-observed portions of an organ are displayed.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,554,668 discloses, “ . . . a tunable semiconductor laser for swept source optical coherence tomography, comprising a semiconductor substrate; a waveguide on top of said substrate with multiple sections of different band gap engineered multiple quantum wells (MQWs); a multiple of distributed feedback (DFB) gratings corresponding to each band gap engineered MWQs, each DFB having a different Bragg grating period; and anti-reflection (AR) coating deposited on at least the laser emission facet of the laser to suppress the resonance of Fabry-Perot cavity modes. Each DFB MQWs section can be activated and tuned to lase across a fraction of the overall bandwidth as is achievable for a single DFB laser and all sections can be sequentially activated and tuned so as to collectively cover a broad bandwidth, or simultaneously activated and tuned to enable a tunable multi-wavelength laser. The laser hence can emit either a single lasing wavelength or a multiple of lasing wavelengths and is very suitable for swept-source OCT applications.”
U.S. Patent Publication no. 2010/0097614 discloses, “ . . . a wavelength scanning laser light source (10) provided with two Fabry-Perot resonators (13A, 13B) provided in a light path for laser oscillation. The values of FSR (free spectral range) of the Fabry-Perot resonators are set so as to be proximate to each other. The resonator length of at least one of the two Fabry-Perot resonators is periodically varied within a preset range to cause the two Fabry-Perot resonators (13A, 13B) to operate as a wavelength length varying filter of a narrow pass band capable of varying the selection wavelength by the vernier effect to output laser light that has wavelength temporally scanned. The optical coherence tomography device also includes an interference optical system (20) that causes the laser light output from the wavelength scanning laser light source (10) to be branched into light for reference and light for observation to be illuminated on an object for observation (60) and that generates interference light of reflected light of the light for observation illuminated on the object for observation (60) and the light for reference. The optical coherence tomography device further includes a signal processing means (50) that receives the interference light obtained from the interference optical system (20) for transforming the received interference light into an electrical signal to calculate the optical tomographic image information of the object for observation (60).”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,519,096 discloses, “An apparatus and source arrangement for filtering an electromagnetic radiation . . . which may include at least one spectral separating arrangement configured to physically separate one or more components of the electromagnetic radiation based on a frequency of the electromagnetic radiation. The apparatus and source arrangement may also have at least one continuously rotating optical arrangement which is configured to receive at least one signal that is associated with the one or more components. Further, the apparatus and source arrangement can include at least one beam selecting arrangement configured to receive the signal.”
Additional background art includes U.S. Patent Publication no. 2015/0173619, U.S. Pat. No. 7,952,718, U.S. Pat. No. 7,952,718, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,087.